DCMU Episode 6: The Enemy Within Part III
by FireBuff51
Summary: DC/Marvel Unlimited: a shared universe where the characters of Marvel and DC have always coexisted. The fight is on as the Avengers clash with Superman in Suicide Slum, while an injured and weakened Clark Kent makes his way to the Fortress of Solitude.


**DCMU:** _DC/Marvel Unlimited. _A shared universe in which the characters of both DC and Marvel have always coexisted. Featuring new adventures and a few old ones, re-imagined...

**Episode 6**

"_**The Enemy Within"**_

**Part 3**

"Clark? Clark, wake up, son."

Clark Kent's eyes slowly opened as he lay in the dirt. He saw the form of his adopted father, Jonathan Kent standing above him, framed by a high Kansas sun.

Jonathan offered a hand to his son and pulled him to his feet.

Clark glanced at his surroundings. The hundred year old farm house that he grew up in, the corn fields that surrounded Smallville. He wore a red Smallville High T-shirt and faded blue jeans.

"Pa? What's going on? How is this possible?"

He stared down at his father's kind, yet weathered face. The face that had been etched in Clark's mind since his father had died.

"I understand that you haven't been feeling like yourself, son," his father said as they began to stroll along the path that led to the large red barn.

"I...I don't know what's happened, Pa. I'm so confused..."

"You've been hurt, Clark."

"I...feel so weak, Pa. I don't even know if I can keep going...not sure I _want_ to."

"You're sick, that's all. There are a lot of people counting on you right now, Clark. The world needs you."

Clark stopped and looked out at the corn fields.

"It's so hard sometimes, Pa. I miss Smallville. I miss you and Ma. I miss just being normal."

His father smiled at him.

"But you've never been normal, Clark. You know that. You were always destined for greater things. Your mother and I have always told you that."

"It's hard having everyone count on you, Pa."

"I know, son, but you can handle it. You've always been able to. You've done amazing things for this planet and you still have a lot more to accomplish."

"Boys!" called a familiar sounding voice. "Jonathan! Clark! Supper time!"

Clark turned and stared at his mother, Martha as she stood on the back porch, wiping her hands on her apron. She waved to her son.

"Mom," he sighed softly.

"Clark! Come on in, before it gets cold!" she called. "Beef Bourguignon. Your favorite!"

"Comin', Martha!" Pa Kent called before turning to his son. "Not you, son. You need to wake up now. People need you."

"Okay, Pa." Clark smiled wearily.

His father clasped a hand to the back of his neck. Clark gripped his father's arm.

"I'm damned proud of you, son."

"Thanks, Pop."

"Now go. And visit your mother more often. It's not that hard. I mean, you _can_ fly, for corn's sake."

His father suddenly disappeared. Then the house and the cornfields. Everything went black.

Clark awoke and rolled over onto his side. He was still weak and in pain. The icy winds howled over him. He pulled himself to his feet and stared out across the snow drifts and ice fields.

He focused his attention on the large formation of giant crystals that rose into the sky.

He stumbled towards it. He didn't know what this secluded place was, but he was sure that it was the reason he had come here.

He paused before the massive structure. There was a large square cut into the formation that appeared to be a door. He looked down and saw a key set into the ice at his feet.

He knelt, and summoning his strength, punched the ice. It cracked. He punched it repeatedly until it shattered. He pulled the key from the ice and stood.

Clark pushed the heavy key into the lock on the door, which slid open.

He cautiously stepped inside and the door slid shut behind him.

He was still disoriented, but he knew what this place was. He was home. XXXXXX

New York City.

Janet van Dyne, known to the general public as the superhero Wasp, flew through the halls of Avengers Tower. The pretty brunette was no bigger than the size of one of her lipstick cases as she buzzed into the large conference room at the top of the skyscraper.

She suddenly grew to the size of a normal human being and her wings disappeared as she landed lightly on her feet, walking to the middle of the room.

"JARVIS, situation report," she called.

A large picture window suddenly transformed into a television monitor as an aerial feed from one of the Metropolis news channels appeared, showing a crater and several overturned cars on a large downtown boulevard.

"_Iron Man and Thor have engaged Superman_," the disembodied voice echoed through the large room. "_They are attempting to subdue him in an unpopulated section of Metropolis._"

Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, entered the room in her red and black suit, twirling her mask on one finger.

"I trust they're still duking it out with Blue Boy?"  
"Yep," Wasp sighed. "And it's just us womenfolk here left to mind the homestead."

"Perhaps you forgot that I am in the building as well?" offered the man known as Black Panther as he followed Ms. Marvel into the room.

Wasp shook her head.

"Sorry, T'Challa. I'm just frustrated. I want to be with the rest of our team. I mean, don't you? They're gonna need us."

"The Captain is an excellent tactician, on par with The Batman," replied Black Panther. "I trust his judgment. Also, our help may be needed if another crisis arises."

"We seriously need to hold a membership drive. Maybe give away tote bags or something," Wasp replied. "I mean, we have a pact with the Justice League that only one of our teams can be off world at any one time so that the planet won't be left unprotected. Ever since Hank quit, our numbers have gotten smaller. Oh, Hank..."

Hank Pym, also known as Ant Man, had decided to leave the team and devote his attention to his humanitarian work and research. Janet had tried to talk the man that she loved out of his decision, but to no avail. She was still hurt by it.

"Hey, we're not the only superhero team around, ya know?" Carol tried to change the subject. "I mean there is the Fantastic Four, for starters..."

Janet laughed.

"Oh, _please_..."  
XXXXXX

Lex Luthor watched the helicopter carrying SHIELD director Nick Fury lift off and disappear into the horizon.

He lit a cigar to calm his nerves and pondered his next move. No doubt Superman would return for him. He had to get to a safe house before...

A figure leapt from the still smoking hole on the 80th floor of the LexCorp tower and landed hard in the street, cracking the pavement.

"Ah, Mercy. You're still alive," observed Luthor. "You're a credit to the Amazonian race."

"Sorry, Boss," the well built woman replied as she dusted herself off. "The Boy Scout knocked me out for a while."

"No matter. Fetch the car, Mercy. You and I will be taking an urgent holiday, methinks."

Meanwhile, Iron Man flew over the rooftops toward an abandoned section of Suicide Slum while carrying a disoriented Superman who suddenly regained his senses. He reached above his head, grabbed Iron Man's shoulders and hurled him to the Earth below.

Iron Man fired his boosters and slowed his descent before he hit the ground. He hovered fifty feet above the abandoned neighborhood below.

He raised his palms to show his repulsor rays, while at the same time, miniature machine guns and a missile launcher emerged from his armor.

"You have no idea what I can do with this suit, Superman," he called. "I suggest you give up right now so we can make sense of all of this."

"Nothing in your suit can hurt me, Stark," Superman replied.

"Yeah?" an electronic whining could be heard as Iron Man powered up his repulsors. "We'll see."

He blasted Superman with two beams of pure white energy, stunning him and sending him tumbling backwards through the air.

"Repulsor beams! How'd they taste? Still hungry?"

He fired a barrage from the machine guns on his forearms.

"888 Uranium rounds! Little suckers sting, don't they?"

The bullets ricocheted off of Superman as he climbed higher in the sky.

"Is that the best you've got, Stark?!" he shouted.

"Well, in keeping with the eating metaphors, that was just the appetizer!"

Superman blew a concentrated blast of freezing breath at Iron Man. His suit, suddenly covered in ice, shut down, sending him plummeting back to Earth.

Thor swooped down from above and caught his friend. He carefully placed him in the street, then soared off into the sky.

"Little help, Goldilocks?" Iron Man called. "I'm feeling very much like a _Hungry Man_ dinner right now! Hello?!"

Thor swung his hammer and assaulted Superman with a sustained blast of lightning bolts.

"I take no pleasure in this, Kryptonian! Surrender now!"

Superman threw up his hands and deflected the lightning bolts, pushing them back at Thor.

Thor struggled to keep up the onslaught, until finally, one of the lightning bolts boomeranged and struck him, causing him to fall from the sky.

He crash landed through the roof of a small house, sending a debris cloud through each of the boarded up windows.

Superman landed in the street and stalked towards Iron Man.

"JARVIS! JARVIS?" Stark called inside his helmet. "Kinda need you, buddy..."

Superman crouched before him and with his heat vision, he began to melt the ice that had encased Stark's suit and then continued to bore a hole into the armor.

"You look cold, Stark! Let me fix that!"

Stark tried to push him off, but with his suit shut down, it was useless.

"Or maybe," Superman punctured the armor with his fingers and gripped the uni-beam in the middle of Iron Man's chest. "Maybe, I'll just rip out your heart!"

A large disk clanged against his head and knocked him to the ground.

Captain America caught his shield as it returned to him.

"That's enough, Superman."

Superman looked up to see a Quinjet, the Avengers' aircraft of choice, circle once over the neighborhood and then descend into a low hover.

The jet's guns swung around and pointed at him.

"Well, don't I feel special?" Superman taunted. "Captain America, Thor, Iron Man. All here for me. It's gonna take more than that to bring me down. Who else is comin' to the party?"

He was suddenly enveloped by a large shadow. A massive green figure landed on him and smashed him into the pavement.

"Hulk is here!" snarled The Incredible Hulk as he stomped on him once more for good measure.

Black Widow shook her head as she piloted the Quinjet.

"He's eloquent, I'll give him that."

The SHIELD agent codenamed _Hawkeye_ dropped from a hatch below the jet and stood in the street beside Captain America, bow and arrow raised.

Thor erupted from the smashed house and landed in the street. He helped Iron Man to his feet just as his armor's systems came back online.

The Avengers stared down at the motionless form of the man from Krypton, imbedded in the pavement.

"Somebody's gotta peel 'im off the street," said Iron Man before raising his hand. "Not it."

XXXXXX

"I'm worried, Ms. Lane." Jimmy Olsen said as Lois Lane attempted to navigate the downtown traffic in her yellow BMW convertible.

Lois checked her mirror as she swerved into an area that had not yet been cordoned off by the police.

"I'm sure he's fine, Jimmy," she said unconvincingly. "You know Clark. He always seems to find his way into some crazy situation and he always come out unscathed. Knowing him, as soon as he saw that was something was up downtown, he probably raced right down here and then just got swept up when the cops evacuated people from the area. He's fine. I'm sure of it."

XXXXXX

The Hulk yanked the motionless body of Superman from the pavement and held him high by his cape.

"Most unusual," Thor said, stroking his chin as he stared at the unconscious Superman.

"What's that, big guy?" asked Iron Man. "Those red shorts on the outside of his suit? I've always thought that was weird, too."

"Something is amiss. I have fought alongside Superman more than once and I have never seen him rendered unconscious, yet it has now happened twice since we have battled him. Most unusual, indeed."

The Hulk grunted.

"Hulk agree."

"'Hulk agree'? Really?" Stark lifted his helmet's faceplate. "How can you form a semi-cogent thought like that, yet still talk like an enraged Cookie Monster?"

"Hulk...talk like HULK!"

"You make a good point."

"Well, whatever the reason," said Captain America. "Let's get these Kryptonite shackles on him before he wakes up."

"Don't jinx us, Cap," said Hawkeye.

On cue, Superman's eyes snapped open and he blasted heat beams at Captain America who deftly deflected them with his shield.

The beams ricocheted and hit the Hulk, causing him to roar and drop his prisoner.

Superman slugged Thor in the jaw and sent him flying, then kicked Stark in the chest, sending him into the side of a building twenty feet away.  
Black Widow unleashed a barrage of rounds from the Quinjet's twin chain guns, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.

As Superman deflected the bullets, Captain America ran at him, and ducking behind his shield, crashed into him, knocking him to the pavement.

The Hulk slammed one of his massive feet down onto Superman, pinning him.

"Stay down, blue man," the beast growled.

Superman gripped the Hulk's foot, and with great effort lifted him and threw him into another building.

Hawkeye fired an arrow at Superman that exploded as soon as it hit him and covered him in a quick-drying foam that hardened and molded itself to his body. It was an incapacitating weapon developed by SHIELD that had been used to take down several of the world's stronger super-powered criminals including most recently, Solomon Grundy.

Superman shattered the mold.

"Well, crap. That usually works," Hawkeye said quietly.

"You're all a bunch of gnats compared to me!" Superman shouted. "If I have to break every single one of you, I will!"

Thor flew at Superman with his hammer and hit him, sending him soaring high into the air. Iron Man rocketed after him. He caught him, then turned and from eighty feet in the air, drove him straight down into the pavement. The resulting impact sent a debris cloud in every direction.

Iron Man stood over him.

"Like Hulk said: stay down, blue man."

Superman grinned up at Iron Man and then hit him with an uppercut.

Iron Man flew backwards and crashed-landed in a heap several feet away.

"Okay...that...stung..." he slurred before passing out.

"One down," said Superman. "Who's nex-"

Thor socked him in the jaw.

"You would do well to surrender now, Kryptonian," he called. "You cannot defeat an Asgardian."

"Oh really?" Superman rubbed his chin.

"I have defeated frost giants and the dark elves of Svartalfheim. You are nothing more than a sparring partner to the God of Thunder!"

"Spar with this!"  
Superman punched the ground splitting a large crevasse in the pavement that headed straight towards Thor, who lost his balance and tumbled backwards, dropping his hammer.

With lightning-fast speed, Superman pounced on Thor and assaulted him with a flurry of punches.

Thor wrapped his fingers under Superman's jaw and pushed with all of his might.

Hawkeye fired another arrow that exploded in a blinding flash of light, momentarily stunning the man in blue and red.

Captain America landed on Superman's back and wrapped an arm around his throat.  
"This ends now!" he growled as he tightened his choke hold.

"Mjolnir!" Thor shouted, summoning his hammer.

The hammer lifted off of the ground, then turned and flew straight toward its owner.

Superman grabbed Captain America's arms and spun him around, breaking the captain's grip and throwing him directly into the path of Mjolnir.

The hammer struck Captain America. He crashed to the ground where he landed motionless.

"Cap!" Black Widow shouted as she circled the Quinjet and unleashed a second volley from the ship's chain guns.

"Cap and Stark are down!" Hawkeye shouted, drawing another arrow from his quiver.

"Verily," Thor replied. "I have eyes, Agent Barton."

"Alright," Hawkeye fired an exploding arrow at Superman. "Don't get your chainmail in a twist, Fabio."

Superman lifted into the air and flew at the Quinjet as the bullets bounced off of him continually.

"Guys!" Black Widow called as she continued to fire. "Little help!"

Superman cocked his fist as he prepared to punch a hole into the jet's cockpit.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, the Hulk leapt into the air and caught him. They landed on the roof of an old apartment building.

The two squared off, circling each other.

"You're not Superman," said the Hulk. "Hulk can tell."

Superman sneered at the giant creature before him.

"That's right. My name is Kal-El. _Superman_ was my Earth name. I am not an earthling. I am a Kryptonian!"  
"Hulk not care about your name!" the Hulk growled. "HULK SMASH YOU ANYWAY!"

He jumped and slammed back down onto the roof, pummeling Superman with his giant fists as the building collapsed.

"Run!" Thor shouted at Hawkeye as he dashed in the opposite direction.

Thor scooped up Captain America's motionless form and flew him away from the collapsing building.

Superman and the Hulk were locked in a death grip as the apartment building collapsed in on itself.

They were buried by a ton of debris as they broke through the bottom floor and landed in a sewer tunnel below.

Silence settled over the neighborhood.  
XXXXXX

Clark stood inside the massive cavern that was the Fortress of Solitude. It was quite beautiful in its own way. Thousands of shimmering crystals of varying lengths and sizes jutted from the walls and ceilings at odd angles.

He stumbled forward and steadied himself against a stand of crystals.

One of the crystals suddenly began to glow a bright emerald.

Clark was taken aback as the ghostly figure of a white-haired man appeared before him wearing a white robe with a large "S" symbol on his chest.

"Kal-El," the figure called.

Clark stared, in awe of the sight before him. He knew this man. He was so weak and disoriented that he wasn't sure what was real anymore, but he knew this man.

"What troubles you, my son?" asked the apparition.

"I'm...I...I don't know who I am."

"You are my son, Kal-El. You are the last known survivor of the planet Krypton."

Clark dropped to his knees.

"I don't...understand...I..."

"You are not well, my son. You have been harmed, have you not? You appear weak, injured."

Clark gazed up at the man floating before him.

"Father?"

A green shaft of light beamed down on Clark, analyzing him.

"I understand now," said the figure solemnly. "You have been exposed to black Kryptonite. You have been separated from the side of you which lacks inhibitions. Your darker half. It has left you weak and confused. This is a normal effect of the exposure. However, there is now another being possessing your power and abilities that has been unleashed upon your world that no doubt wishes to do it harm. This is a grave situation."

"What...show me what to do..."

The image of a planet appeared before him.

"My name is Jor-El. Your mother was named Lara. On Krypton, I was a man of science. I knew that years of tapping Krypton's natural resources had doomed our planet. I attempted to warn the ruling council, who rebuffed me. Your mother and I knew that we were fated to perish with Krypton, but we also knew that your life could be saved. Your mother and I knew that you, Kal-El, were destined for great things. We sent you to Earth."

The image of the planet exploded with a brilliant flash of light and a small rocket ship emerged from the explosion.

"We knew that the people of Earth could be a great people. That they wished to be. They only needed someone to show them the way, to shed light on their capacity for good. This is why I sent to them, you; my son."

Clark watched as the image of the small rocket ship traveled through space, passing the sun.

"Your ship crash-landed on earth. You were discovered by Johnathon and Martha Kent, who raised you as their own. Your mother and I could not have chosen better people to love you and to guide you on your path."

Images flashed before Clark of him as a small boy, eating birthday cake, flanked by his parents. Another image of him, as a toddler, lifting a truck off of his father. One more image of him, as a teenager, racing alongside a speeding train and passing it.

"The light of the Earth's yellow sun granted you powers far beyond that of any human," continued Jor-El. "You would grow to use these powers to help this planet; to protect its people."

More images appeared, of Superman catching a falling jetliner, of him protecting a family by deflecting gunfire with his chest.

Clark stared, transfixed by the images floating before him.

"I...I remember..."

"You, my son, have become the protector of this planet, because it is your home. For as much as you are of Krypton you are now also of Earth. It has been your destiny to lead its people, to show them the way. And so shall this continue."

The images disappeared, replaced by Jor-El's floating visage.

"I...remember who I am," Clark struggled to his feet. "I remember it all..."

He stood tall and heaved a deep sigh.

"I'm Superman."

Jor-El nodded.

"The yellow sun will heal you, Kal-El. You must go now, your people need you."

Clark turned and faced the door which slid open, exposing the howling cold outside.

He ripped open his shirt to reveal the large red "S" on his chest. Summoning every last ounce of his strength, he left the fortress in a blur and rocketed high into the sky.

**End of Episode 6**

All characters featured in this piece of fiction are the copyrighted property of their respective owners, creators and studios.


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